A cousin whom Lucy had never seen before may have lived in the same place as the oldest known human species, new research suggests

The approximately 2.6 million-year-old fossil teeth found in Ethiopia may belong to an early, previously unknown human relative, researchers say.

The teeth are from the species of Australopithecus, a genus that contains Lucy (A. afarensis). However, according to a new study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday (August 13th), these newly discovered teeth do not appear to belong to the known Australopithecus.

Furthermore, on the same site, researchers found a very old tooth in Homo, a genus containing modern humans (HOMO SAPIENS). These teeth may belong to the oldest known homo species on records that scientists have not yet named, the study found.

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These new findings show that at least two early human lineages (the group that includes humans and our closest parents) coexisted in the same area around 2.6 million years ago, the researchers said.

Discoveries at Ledi-Geraru’s archaeological site

Researchers discovered the teeth at an archaeological site in Ledi-Geraru in northeastern Ethiopia. This is known for its early groundbreaking discoveries. This is some of the 2.8 million-year-old jawbone, a human specimen from 2.8 million years ago, and some of the oldest known stone tools made 2.6 million years ago.

Paleontologists and archaeologists assume that the area is an open, dry lawn plain during this period, and is based on fossils of herbivore at the time. The region offers resources available to Homo and Australopithecus. Francis Forest, an archaeologist at Fairfield University in Connecticut, spoke to Live Science via email because he was not involved in the new research. The grasslands and rivers would have provided drinking water, eating plants, and large animals to hunt.

Related: “Great Surprise” reveals that some people left Africa 50,000 years ago

However, an unusually rich fossil record in this field may be due to the excellent preservation of bodies, for example, due to volcanic eruptions. This isn’t necessarily a hot spot for humanity, Forest said.

Australopithecus and Homo teeth

In a new study, researchers used layers of volcanic ash above and below the newly discovered fossils to determine their age. Of the 13 teeth found, 10 of the teams were 2.63 million years old and belonged to an unknown species.

Previously, researchers had discovered that they remained in the areas of A. afarensis and Australian pithecus Garhi. However, newly discovered teeth look different from those species. “It could be a new species because it doesn’t match any of these,” Kaye Reed, a study co-author who is a paleoecologist at Arizona State University, told Live Science.

However, since teeth do not have any particularly unique features, the researchers have not officially listed it as a newly identified species. “In the fossil record, researchers usually define new species by finding anatomical properties that differ consistently from those of known species,” Forest said, adding that the evidence from this finding is too limited and limited to defining new species.

Researchers also identified two teeth that were 2.59 million years ago, and one that was 278 million years ago. Everything belongs to the genus Homo. This considers the lead to be the same species as the oldest known homo specimen.

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Research authors J. Ramón Arrowsmith and Christopher J. Campisano examine the geology of areas near new fossils.

Aerial views from the Ledi-Geraru excavation site, home to newly discovered fossilized teeth and the site where the oldest known homo specimens were found.

The new discoveries mean that at least three Hymonin species lived in this area of Ethiopia 2.5 million years ago. Homo and Australpithecus species belonging to these teeth and A. garhi.

At the same time, A. Africanus lived in South Africa, while Paranthropus, another human genus, lived in what is now Kenya, Tanzania and South Ethiopia.

This evolutionary trial and error within the extended Hymonin family is why the human evolutionary tree is considered “bushed” rather than linear.

“Over the past decade or so, for much of our evolutionary history, there have been multiple species of human relatives that existed simultaneously,” John Hawks, anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison University who was not involved in the new research, told Live Science. “A new paper tells us what this is happening in Ethiopia… [in] Because it is probably the earliest population of our genus homos. ”

Next Steps

The research team is currently studying new dental enamel. Because their chemistry can reveal what these species are eating. This may reveal whether these hymonin are eating the same thing and compete for similar resources.

“Now we can hardly say for certain about the direct interaction between Australopithecus and Homo,” Forest said. “We know that both genera sometimes overlap in time and space, but there is no behavioral evidence to link the two together.”

Chimpanzees and gorillas live in some of the same forest, the Hawks pointed out, but they are almost lined up and separated from each other geographically. The fact that these early hominins may have lived closer than primates typically do today is interesting, Hawks said.

“They probably didn’t eat the same thing,” Reed pointed out. “But now we really don’t know.”

Researchers are also looking for more information and fossils on the site. “Everything we found is a work of human evolutionary puzzles,” Reid said.